Better Team in 2025 But Not a Better Record

[entropy13]

So your message seems to be deal with it,shut up and pony up. Kind of reminds me of what they used to tell rape victims in the early 60s"Since you can't stop it might as well lay back and enjoy it". Having supported UK football for nearly 60 years I feel I have earned the right to voice an opinion on a matter that I feel will eventually sink UK football as we know it. If that makes me a " bad fan" or a demagogue so be it. I have been called much worse.

You absolutely have a right to voice your opinion.

Drawing an analogy between voluntary NIL donations and rape victims in the past was likely not the best way make your point. 🤣🤦🏻‍♂️

 

[Rembrandt90]

You absolutely have a right to voice your opinion.

Drawing an analogy between voluntary NIL donations and rape victims in the past was likely not the best way make your point. 🤣🤦🏻‍♂️

Very well said. Opinions are like refrigerators. Everybody has one. I simply don't understand how someone can profess to disapprove so strongly of UK's athletic programs and yet display a years-long fascination with watching hames and reiterating redundant harsh criticisms of same, week after week after week. At what point has this become a counterintuitive, unhealthy obsession? If the disapproval is sincere, why not just find something else more pleasant to do? Why all the hyperbole?

 

[Rembrandt90]

So your message seems to be deal with it,shut up and pony up. Kind of reminds me of what they used to tell rape victims in the early 60s"Since you can't stop it might as well lay back and enjoy it". Having supported UK football for nearly 60 years I feel I have earned the right to voice an opinion on a matter that I feel will eventually sink UK football as we know it. If that makes me a " bad fan" or a demagogue so be it. I have been called much worse.

That is a cynical and offensive take. You have a clear choice here between being part of the solution or part of the problem. Clearly, you have made your choice, reasoning that your father's support of UK sports buys you considerable latitude for sloppy public behavior. You are an angry person. Whether you are a bad fan is not the purpose of this board, but the board is not here for hyperbolic rape analogies either. Whether you "pony up" is your decision alone, but you are obviously insulting the intelligence and loyalty of those who have. Nobody told you to shut up. That is your prodigious imagination.

 

[Rembrandt90]

We beat ole miss, hung with Georgia and lost by 1, kept it close against UT into the 4th and so on. Improvement should lead to a better record IMO. Going 4 and 8 again is nonsense.

Totally agree. Given the entire regime overhaul in college athletics, I'm of the opinion that if you don't have season tix or contribute to NIL, then your opinion is closer to worthless than relevant. I get that many cannot afford to contribute, but if we are buying a keg for a party and you can't pitch in, then you have no say in which beer is chosen, but if you're nice and quiet we'll let you drink up.

Which brings us back to the title of the thread. Better team? Better record? Maybe.

My conclusion has been that UK has had a top half of the SEC defense and pretty good skill players. Injuries have hurt, but every football team has them. Blaming injuries is more or less a fair criticism of depth. To me, by far the biggest problem has been poor OL play, complicated by having a new starting QB every year with the implied necessity of a competent OL. Some have jumped all over Eric Wolford, but there were reasons why Nick Saban hired him. My thought is that Wolford is a significant recruiting asset and shouldn't be blamed outright for the OL until he has had several consecutive seasons to develop solutions. An OL invariably looks bad when the QB can't make decisions. Complicating things, Zach Yenser was a poor recruiter who lacked attention to detail in terms of developing and coaching his room. Wolford is more experienced and more demanding. Eventually this should produce considerable improvement, but having more talented players in the room (and more of them) is the prerequisite.

I am a fan of Jalen Farmer, a young OG with size and tools Wolford is developing. Compared to Gerald Mincey and Marques Cox, I like Wollschlaeger, Pete, Unamba, and Wood much better. Mincey looked like Tarzan but played like Jane. Marques tried hard but was always playing hurt. Compared to Burton, I like Braun better because Braun is a more physical OG. I don't have a sense of Wibberley's skill set, but I believe Eli Cox was a better player than he got credit for. So we will see. Overall, I expect our 2025 OL to be considerably improved. If that is the case, our offense will move the chains and put more points on the board because everything always starts upfront.

This probably hasn't been talked about enough. Our locker room was not united last season. That's why Stoops and Marrow were not as sorry as some of us to see certain undergraduate players leave. If the licker room environment improves, the product on the field will improve. This does not absolve Stoops for last season, but Stoops obviously knows his back is against the wall now. Anyone who has actually listened to him really cannot deny that rationally.

Nobody anticipated Vandagriff would be so indecisive, but his inexperience turned out to be problematic. This has been widely blamed on Coach Hamdan, but I am not convinced that is fair. Hamdan can teach, but Hamdan cannot go out onto the field and throw passes. Combined with a poor OL, Vandagriff's inexperience hurt him. Calzada should be an improvement, especially if the OL is better. Wilcox has a year of experience and a full offseason now. Mizell and Patterson haven't even had a chance yet. Dante Dowdell adds experience and size to the room. Dane Key, Barion Brown, and Hardley Gilmore are not necessarily better than Tru Edwards, Troy Stellato, JJ Hester, and Kendrick Law. An argument can be made that our WR room will actually be better next fall. But Gilmore has 4 more years of eligibility, which is the main damage done by the WR turnover. Gilmore is a steal for NE. We can hope Dejerrian Miller, Quintin Simmons, and Cam Miller will help us forget about Gilmore. Time will tell, but I like this class.

Every offseason, we see new dread here about the upcoming schedule. I don't take it seriously because every team has roster losses and injuries. Consequently, we never know how good each team will be until they show what they can do. People can say what they want, but nobody knew OK and MO would struggle like they did in 2024, or that Vandy and UF would be as competitive as they were. I know UK can have a winning record in 2025, but I want to see what each SEC team can do without prejudging too much too early. As of now, neither extreme would surprise me but I remain optimistic.